


Tunguska

by scullywolf



Series: TXF: Scenes in Between [81]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Gen, MSR, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-24
Updated: 2015-10-24
Packaged: 2018-04-27 19:40:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5061466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullywolf/pseuds/scullywolf





	Tunguska

_“You speak Russian, Krycek?”  
“My parents were Cold War emigres, what’s it to you?”_

Much as he did not relish the thought of a nine-hour flight with the man -- and another five-hour one after that -- Mulder had to admit that Krycek could be of some use as a translator once they got to Russia. Directions to the Tunguska crater would be hard enough to come by even without a language barrier, and the less time he had to spend wandering around lost, the better. He smiled, tightly.

“In that case, I guess you just earned yourself a ticket to come along after all.”

Krycek blinked, still breathing heavily with residual anger and panic. “Russia? You were going to leave me here and fly to goddamned _Russia_?”

“Seemed like the thing to do, yeah.” Mulder opened the car door and reached across the steering wheel to unlock the handcuffs while Krycek glared at him. “Oh don’t give me that. I was gonna have someone come pick you up. Eventually.”

“винт, который вы и ваша мать,” Krycek spat.

“I’m gonna assume you just thanked me,” Mulder said, tugging on the cuffs until Krycek half crawled, half fell across the seat and tumbled out of the car. 

After re-securing Krycek’s hands and covering them with a jacket, he led the scowling man inside the airport. Krycek didn’t fight but continued to glower when Mulder shackled him to a chair.

“You stay there like a good boy while I go get you a ticket.”

Grateful for the diplomatic paperwork Ms. Covarrubias had arranged for him, Mulder was able to secure a second ticket with no trouble. Boarding passes in hand, he strode over to a bank of payphones from which he could still keep an eye on his reluctant travel partner and dialed Scully’s cell number.

“Scully.”

“Hey, Scully, it’s me. Where are you?”

“I’m just leaving Goddard. Mulder, you’re not going to believe--”

“Do you have a pen and paper handy? I need you to get to a payphone and call me back at this number.”

“I, um…” He could hear rustling over the line as she presumably dug around for something to write with. “Okay, go ahead.”

He gave her the number of the phone next to the one he was using, then hung up and waited. Several minutes later, it rang.

“Mulder, what’s going on? Where are you?”

“I’m at JFK. Listen, Scully, that pouch with the rock came from Krasnoyarsk, Russia, which is not too far south of the Tunguska crater. I’m positive that’s where they got that rock, that they dug it out of the crater. I’ve got to follow up and find out what else they’re doing out there.”

“You’re saying this thing came from Russia? From a meteorite? Because Mulder, what I found, what Agent Pendrell and I found… It appears the rock contained some sort of liquid, something that, we’re not even sure how, but that managed to penetrate a Level 4 hazmat suit. We still haven’t figured out the exact mechanism, but Dr. Sacks is in some sort of coma state, and when we examined him, there was an oily substance on both the outside and the inside of his face shield, something that it appears he splattered on himself when he cut into the rock.”

“I think it’s more than just a rock, Scully. I think that whatever fell out of the sky in 1908 contained something much more dangerous than fossilized alien bacteria, something the Russians have figured out how to exploit and possibly even weaponize.”

“Well, by all appearances, it seems you may be right. I can’t even begin to explain it, but there does seem to be a whole lot more going on here than we initially thought.”

“And I’m also betting that the man Krycek tossed off Skinner’s balcony is somehow affiliated with our cigarette-smoking friend. I think our government found out what the Russians were up to, and I don’t know whether they’re stealing samples or working cooperatively with the Kremlin, but either way, nobody’s going to want the full story uncovered. I need you to keep the off my tail as long as possible, or I’ll never get far enough to get the evidence we need to take them down. Can you do that for me, Scully?”

“Of course, I just...” She was quiet a moment, and he looked over at Krycek, still sulking on the chair. “Just be careful out there, Mulder. Whatever this stuff is, whatever they’ve uncovered… it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if Dr. Sacks will ever recover, and if you get exposed somehow, halfway across the world…”

“I’ll be careful, Scully. And you be careful, too. I’ll let you know what I find out.”


End file.
